Sheep enlisted to bring ‘Google Street View’ to remote Faroe Islands

Between Norway and Iceland rests an archipelago of 18 little isles called the Faroe Islands. The residents want Google Street View, but the tech giant hasn’t announced plans to visit the subarctic archipelago – so the residents enlisted the help of some local sheep. They strapped cameras onto the backs of sheep and then set them loose, giving new meaning to the term ‘woolgathering.’

The Faroe Islands are some of the “most unexplored places on Earth,” according to Durita Dahl Andreassen, who works for Visit Faroe Islands. She says Google has been to the top of Mount Blanc in Europe, but they’ve never ventured as far as the Faroe Islands. She came up with a solution to the lack of Google Street View: Sheep View 360.

On the Faroe Islands, there are about 80,000 sheep and only 49,188 people. A local shepherd and inventor helped design a harness equipped with 360 degree solar-powered cameras so sheep can take images as they roam around the islands. The photos are sent back to Andreassen via cell phone, and she uploads them into Google Street View.

In a blog post, Andreassen says, “The Faroe Islands may be rugged and remote but this collection of 18 islands in the North Atlantic also provide some of the world’s most magical landscapes and it is time that this hidden Nordic nation is revealed to the world.”

Sheep View 360 is a temporary substitute, Andreassen’s team hopes. She says Google can capture the big roads and sweeping landscapes even better than the sheep, and started the campaign #wewantgooglestreetview and a petition in an attempt to convince Google to map the islands themselves. You can sign the petition here.